Apparatus for removing coke from stills



L. V. ROBBINS APPARATUS FOR REMOVING COKE FROM STILLS April 17, 1928.

Filed Oct. 18, 1923 INVENTOR \Y. MUM

Patented Apr. 17, 1928.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

LEROY V. ROBBINS, OF BATON ROUGE, LO'O'ISIANA,.ASSIGNOB TO STANDARD OILDE- VELOPMENT COMPANY, A CORPORATION OF DELAWARE APPARATUS FOR REMOVINGCOKE FROM STILLS.

Application filed October 18, 1923. Serial No. 669,318.

This invention relates to the art of demanhole opening entirely acrossthe lower structive dictillation of hydrocarbons, and will be fullyunderstood from the following description, taken in connection with theaccompanying drawing, in which- Fig. 1 is a plan view partly in sectionof a still in accordance with the invention, ortions being broken awayat'the ends to s ow the equipment on the floor;

Fig. 2 is an enlarged sectional view, taken on the line 2-2 of Fig. 1,looking in the direction of the arrow;

Fig. 3 is an enlarged vertical sectional view of the drag along the lineIII-III of Fig.1;and:

Figs. 4 and time Ian and side views-respeftively of other etails, on anenlarged sca e.

In the operation of coking-stills the body 2 of residual coke depositedin the still is customarily broken up by hand picks and spuds and isshoveled out. As it is all hand labor and the operatives must work inrelay shifts of a few minutes each on account of '5 the heat and workingconditions, the labor is both diflicult and a so very expensive. It hasbeen heretofore proposed to diminish the hand labor required, bpreliminarily arranging a chain in paral el coils on the 0 floor of thestill so as to be embedded in the coke deposit at the close of the run,and then pull the chain loose, coil after coil, by means of a Windlassand donkey-engine. this accomplished a breaking-up of the coke and itwas found that the coke; did not break cleanly from the still surface,and an excesslve amount of finlshlng work was necessary. Laterit wasproposed to substitute.

for the chain a series of rectangular open frames connected by shortlengths of chain,

these being arranged on the floor of the still T before the run, andafter the run being pulled out serially through a large man-hole 5 atthe end. While this broke up the coke While deposit, the coke all had tobe shoveled out a still- S (see Fig. 1) preferably having a segment ofone end is e nipped with a series of break-out strips B, t ese beingconnected end to end by some flexible means, as swivel links or chainlinks, and when in operative. position being arran ed in serial rowsacross the still floor in t e coking area. Each break-out strip is madeup of a piece of metal 2 of suitable strength and durable character, forexample a piece of boiler plate, and projecting at spaced intervals oneach side are .lugs or teeth 3 preferably firmly riveted in place. Ateach end of the strip a hole 4 is provided to receive the links 5 forconnecting the strips end to end in series. Fastened to the end of theseries of break-out strips by a flexible connection,

for instance a chain bridle I), is a clean out drag D. While the dragmay vary somewhat in construction it shouldbe strong and yet as light asfeasible. Advantageously it may be made up of channel-ironsupportrunners 6 and a back. The back may be made of one piece of metalif desired, but I prefer to employ an I-beam base 7 shaped to thecurvature of the floor of the still and an I-beam straight or chordaltop 8 and connecting irons and braces 9, 1O tying the aforesaid memberstogether.

Preliminarily to the run the drag is set on the floor of the still atthe back end and the string of break-out elements is arranged row-wisealon free end link ing laced where it can be at once found after t 1erun. After the dis-- tillation run is over, theJarge end manhole plateis taken off, and the free link at the end of the strin of break-outelements is connected to a pn -chain of a suitable donkeyengine Windlassor the like, and pulling is started. As the break-out strips one afteranother are broken loose, the teeth 3 assist by a wedging action, and asthe strips are' drawn along, the teeth as coke-engaging projectionscatch the blocks and hel to scoop them along out of the still. A s ightdegree of resiliency in the break-out strip is of advantage in assistingthe strip to free itself from the attached coke. Finally the drag ispulled loose in its turn and as it is drawn forward along the entirestill bottom it carries along any remaining pieces.

the bottom of the still, the

5 the invention.

I claim:

1. Apparatus of the character described, which comprises a stillprovided with a manhole across the lower se ment of one end, a

10 closure therefor, a series of flexibl connected break-out strips'eachhaving lateral teeth, a drag having support-runners and a back made upof top and bottom I-beam pieces and connecting angle-irons, and aflexible connection between the drag and the end of the series ofbreak-out strips, said man-hole sage of the drag therethru. v

" 2. Apparatus of the character described, which comprises a stillprovided with a man-hole across the lower segment of one end, a seriesof flexibly connected break-out strips each having lateral teeth, and adrag flexibly connected to theend of the series of break-out strips,said man-hole being large" elnou'gh to permit passage of the drag theretiru. I

v LEROY V. ROBBINS.

ing large enough to permit pas-

